10/11: Ready or Not
Still playing catch up. Here's 10/11's horror:
10/11: Today's horror flick was the sleeper horror movie Ready or Not. A movie about a family that initiates its newest members with a game night (because they're a family of gaming tycoons of course!), Ready or Not is yet another installment in the odd subgenre of "game" horror movies. What do I mean, you ask? I mean, look around. Board games seem to be all over in movies in general; Game Night, the Jumanji reboot, etc. In horror it's no different; from Truth or Dare to Would you Rather to Jigsaw, board gaming is vogue. Perhaps it's a whole other discussion into just why games as subject matter is so in (I mean, when a live streamed Dungeons and Dragons campaign can pull in 11 million dollars to make an animated series something different is happening. That said, well deserved Critical Role!), so I'll try to keep this to a review around something more in line with what makes Ready or Not a success: how to get a movie like this right.
Back to that plot I was talking about. Sounds stupid, right? Well, yeah, it is stupid. The new bride, Grace, pulls the dreaded Hide and Seek card on her game night, resulting in a ritual where she must be found and killed in a ritual to ensure the family's continued finances.
Yeah, if you weren't in the "that's stupid" camp betcha are now.
Here's the thing: it is a stupid concept. It shouldn't work. Yet Ready or Not is a helluva fun, shut-off-your-brain for awhile horror movie that is a blast to watch. It's not a Truth or Dare that is just as stupid as its concept suggests. So what makes Ready or Not different? To put it simply:
Self-awareness.
Ready or Not knows exactly what it is. It knows the concept is stupid and never claims anything different. It knows exactly what someone watching a movie like this wants: over-the-top violence, no lofty ideals, some humor thrown about gingerly, and a certain sexiness. It doesn't try too hard to be something like the Truth or Dares of the world: it simply is what it is. In doing that it makes an immensely fun horror flick that a lot of other horror could learn a thing from.
9/10
10/11: Today's horror flick was the sleeper horror movie Ready or Not. A movie about a family that initiates its newest members with a game night (because they're a family of gaming tycoons of course!), Ready or Not is yet another installment in the odd subgenre of "game" horror movies. What do I mean, you ask? I mean, look around. Board games seem to be all over in movies in general; Game Night, the Jumanji reboot, etc. In horror it's no different; from Truth or Dare to Would you Rather to Jigsaw, board gaming is vogue. Perhaps it's a whole other discussion into just why games as subject matter is so in (I mean, when a live streamed Dungeons and Dragons campaign can pull in 11 million dollars to make an animated series something different is happening. That said, well deserved Critical Role!), so I'll try to keep this to a review around something more in line with what makes Ready or Not a success: how to get a movie like this right.
Back to that plot I was talking about. Sounds stupid, right? Well, yeah, it is stupid. The new bride, Grace, pulls the dreaded Hide and Seek card on her game night, resulting in a ritual where she must be found and killed in a ritual to ensure the family's continued finances.
Here's the thing: it is a stupid concept. It shouldn't work. Yet Ready or Not is a helluva fun, shut-off-your-brain for awhile horror movie that is a blast to watch. It's not a Truth or Dare that is just as stupid as its concept suggests. So what makes Ready or Not different? To put it simply:
Self-awareness.
Ready or Not knows exactly what it is. It knows the concept is stupid and never claims anything different. It knows exactly what someone watching a movie like this wants: over-the-top violence, no lofty ideals, some humor thrown about gingerly, and a certain sexiness. It doesn't try too hard to be something like the Truth or Dares of the world: it simply is what it is. In doing that it makes an immensely fun horror flick that a lot of other horror could learn a thing from.
9/10
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